The biggest mystery about the upcoming season of Doctor Who – beyond how the Ponds will be going out at the end of the year – is who, exactly, the new Companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman is. We’ve already gotten reports that her name is Clara in homage to the recently departed Elisabeth Sladen (who was probably the most famous Companion, and her real middle name was Clara). And now, new details have emerged thanks to Doctor Who TV [Via Blastr], and an interview on BBC Radio 5.

According to Who head honcho Steven Moffat, here’s what we can expect with Clara:

- The new companion will, again, be a human from contemporary earth. This is necessary for audience identification and a ‘jumping on’ point for new viewers

- How the companion gets where she is and what that means for the character is what will make her utterly different and fascinating.

- The new companion will not have any links to any previous characters.

- Her ‘journey’ will be shocking and intriguing. The Doctor has never met anyone quite like her before.

- Her very presence in the TARDIS will change the Doctor and there’s something different about her that will have a knock-on effect for the Doctor/companion dynamic.

The first thing to take with those statements is a grain of salt because, as we know, The Moffat always lies. Usually there’s a germ of truth somewhere in there, but particularly where secrets are concerned, Moffat has been known to straight up say the opposite of something that’s true (you know, lies?) in order to protect a spoiler.

That said, if we take him at face value, the biggest bit here is the lack of connection to previous Companions. We’ve previously put forth the crazy idea that she might be the regeneration of The Doctor’s wife, River Song; and the popular fan theory is that Clara is someone’s granddaughter… Either The Doctor’s Daughter’s daughter, or the child of that cloned second David Tennant and Rose Tyler from the alternate Earth they got left on, or hopefully something way less complicated than either of those things. Regardless, if Moffat is telling the truth, those are out the window.

Then we need to focus on who she is, and how she got here, and that curious emphasis on the word “Journey.” Maybe she’s H.G. Wells? Or Steve Perry? Regardless, I think we can look a little more closely at that word as details on the season emerge.

And last is the whole, “Never met anyone like her before,” part, which is a bold statement with nearly fifty years of stories about the Doctor… Chances are, unless she’s an upside-down pineapple beast that hopes to some day become a unicorn, the Doctor has met someone like her. Actually, scratch that, I think one of the Radio Plays was, “Invasion Of The Upside-Down Pineapple Beasts.” Tom Baker played all the parts.

So who is Clara? Is her name Clara at all? Why the mystery anyway? We’ll just have to stay tuned to see…